Influence of chemical pretreatments on plant fiber cell wall and their implications on the appearance of fiber dislocations

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  • Alisson Farley Soares Durães
  • Jordão Cabral Moulin
  • Matheus Cordazzo Dias
  • Maressa Carvalho Mendonça
  • Renato Augusto Pereira Damásio
  • Thygesen, Lisbeth Garbrecht
  • Gustavo Henrique Denzin Tonoli

The cell wall of plant fibers may contain irregular regions called dislocations. This study evaluated the effect of chemical pretreatment as a mechanochemical dislocation initiator in unbleached and bleached Eucalyptus sp. fibers. Accordingly, bleached and unbleached pulps of eucalyptus were subjected to chemical pretreatments with sodium hydroxide at concentrations of 5% for 2 h, 10% for 1 h and 10% for 2 h or with hydrogen peroxide. The extent of dislocations was evaluated by polarized light microscopy. Based on the observation, an index of dislocations (ID) expressing their ratio of cell wall as per two-dimensional (2D) imaging and their angle relative to the longitudinal direction of the fiber were estimated. Chemical pretreatments increased the ID for bleached and unbleached fibers as well as increased the changes in the curl of bleached and unbleached fibers for chemical pretreatments. Chemical pretreatment extracted the hemicellulose of the fiber cell wall causing some fiber to curl, which in turn generated new dislocations and modifications in the dislocation angles which may be useful for improving the deconstruction process of the cellulose fibers.

Original languageEnglish
Article number20190237
JournalHolzforschung
Volume74
Issue number10
Pages (from-to)949-955
Number of pages7
ISSN0018-3830
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020

    Research areas

  • fiber fragmentation, kinks, lignocellulose, slip plane, vegetable fibers

ID: 240405652